Archive for September, 2014

I’ve been working on getting a few more of my books out in paperback because I realize not everyone reads ebooks. The next two books that will come out in paperback are Atlantean’s Quest 1: The Arrival (once I go through the proofs and get it sent off to the formatter) and Phantom Warriors 7: The Dark King (just waiting for the cover). I will eventually get most of my books out in paperback. I won’t be able to get all of them due to length issues. Sorry. I’m still trying to figure out how to get Hawk’s Slave out in paperback. Not sure what I’ll do yet, but it will eventually happen.

Phantom Warriors 1: Bacchus appears to be free everywhere now. For which I am genuinely grateful. If you haven’t had the chance to pick it up, now is the time, especially since I’ve rewritten much of it. 🙂 The links to Apple/iBooks on my website for ALL of the Phantom Warriors are currently not working. I’ve been uploading the new proofed books and changing the distribution, so right now, they are VERY confused. I hope to get everything straightened out by the middle of next week. So what I’m saying is: Don’t bother to click on those particular links. The books are in the store, even if they say that they’re not available in the US. (They are. Again, they’re very confused.)

Moonlight Kin 4: Tristan is still coming along. I have about 13K to go before I finish the first draft. It’s still on track to release at the end of October. YAY! If that changes, I will let you know.

Today is my anniversary. I’ll be scarce online today–even more than I normally am, so I can spend time with Dh.

I’ve passed the halfway point on Moonlight Kin 4: Tristan. I have my fingers and toes crossed that the second half goes as smoothly as the first. 🙂 I can “almost” see the finish line from here. Woo Hoo!!!

I’ve hit the halfway point on Moonlight Kin 4: Tristan. Had a surprise plot point come to me last night, so I need to see how that’s going to effect the rest of my outline. Should just make the story better, since it ups the stakes. 🙂 I’m looking forward to exploring it. Yes, I’m being purposely vague. *ggg 😉

I have put Phantom Warriors 1: Bacchus up for free on Smashwords, Kobo, Barnes & Noble (through Smashwords), and soon to be Apple, when I upload it a little later today. It’ll take a while before the price propagates. My guess is a day or two. I’m hoping to make the book perma-free, but I have no control over the other retail outlets.

Yep, it’s that time again. I have a new release. Meet Hawk! He’s a Slaver, a Pirate, and a badass Shifter all rolled into one. 🙂 You can read an excerpt HERE. I’m still waiting for Kobo to publish it, but for a short time (i.e. until SATURDAY) you can get the new release for .99. After that, the price will go up to $2.99.

Three years ago I started self-publishing my backlist. I eventually got everything put up this year. I have noticed a significant change in self-publishing, especially this year. There was a time when you could write the best book you could, have it edited, get an amazing cover, and be pretty sure it would sell decently. Not HUGE numbers, but sustainable numbers. Numbers that would allow most writers to make a living.

Time for a harsh truth: Those days are over.

Now you have to do all the above and hope that you don’t slip down even further. Someone on one of the many lists I belong to was talking about market saturation and predicting even bigger changes to the publishing industry because of it. I believe them. I no longer recognize most of the names I see on the bestseller lists. In fact, I’ve never heard of 85% of them. I don’t want the meaning of those lists to be lost, but I’m afraid that’s exactly what’s going to happen if things continue the way they’re going.

I heard reps from Amazon and Kobo speaking recently and they hinted that big changes were coming. One even hinted at some type of quality control being put into place. I admit that I had mixed feelings about that, since who knows who will be in charge of deciding what’s good or not. The one thing all these changes have driven home to me is that I can’t continue to do what I’ve always done. No matter how hard I work to make my books better (i.e. studying craft, hiring good editors, cover artists, formatters, etc.), my efforts won’t be enough on their own. That is a REALLY difficult thing for me to say and an even harder thing for me to accept. But accept it I must. I’ve come up with a few things I plan to implement on the marketing front, but even those won’t be enough to make a huge dent in a saturated market. (And I don’t mean that in a ‘oh woe is me’ way.) I’m simply stating a fact.

So what does that mean for me and writers like me?

For me, it means changing focus significantly. As much as I enjoy writing romance, I’m never going to be a top-selling romance author. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. (I needed to hear it again.;) I wish that weren’t the case, since that’s been my dream from age fourteen on, but it’s true. My ‘voice’ and the way I approach storytelling is better suited for other genres. Genres I might have a chance of breaking out in. This doesn’t mean that I won’t be writing more romances. I still have a few books I want to write. What it does mean is that they will no longer be my main focus or a priority. They can’t be, if I want to continue to make a living. I will have to push them to the back burner and work on building my other pen names. Pen names that don’t focus entirely on romance. Let the games begin.

It’s a brave new publishing world out there. The only thing certain is change. 🙂